From ‘sad’ Niagara Falls to ‘boring’ Grand Canyon to Venice – ‘it’s just a canal’ – tourists’ LOL online reviews
- Negative online reviews by tourists of destinations and hotels often sound similar, and certainly look alike – exclamation marks and capital letters abound
- Some are meant to be funny, others are unintentionally so – a visitor to the Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru was shocked to find it in ruins and lacking Wi-fi
Spend a few minutes browsing online reviews of hotels, sightseeing attractions and activities and you will notice certain phrases appear more often than others.
“Avoid this hotel” is a familiar heading, usually followed by a list of grievances that can run to hundreds of words. “I would give this zero stars if I could,” is another sign that a tourist enterprise has overcharged or under-delivered.
And things definitely are not going well when a reviewer resorts to: “I’m standing in the ticket queue writing this. Two hours so far!!!!!!!”
A volley of exclamation marks suggests anger and even disbelief, and is often followed by the immortal words:
“I will never come here again.”
The following online reviews show travellers at their most disgruntled, although in some instances, still able to find humour in their predicament.
